Written by Laila Benhaida
Hello, my name is Laila and I’m the Community Archivist at the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust (AIUET) the sister organisation to the RACE Centre. We are an archive and library based in Manchester Central Library first founded in 1999 by Professor Lou Kushnick, professor of Sociology at The University of Manchester. His vision was for a collection that would not only have huge research value but be instrumental in celebrating Global Majority histories and combating racism.
With the support of the Co-Founder Jackie Ould, the archive and library grew its collections with thanks to the many local communities and activists who collaborated with the RACE Centre and donated the early materials. Lou sadly passed away last February, and his memory lives on through the work that we do.
The RACE Centre is named after Ahmed Iqbal Ullah who was a Bangladeshi heritage schoolboy who at the age of 13, was killed in a racist attack by a fellow pupil in the playground of a high school in Manchester in 1986. Ahmed had a keen sense of justice and often stood up to bullies, defending younger Asian boys when they were attacked. His murder was retaliation for just such an action. It was poorly handled by statutory agencies and not initially recognised as a racist attack.
As Lou’s vision and in honour of Ahmed we exist to document the experiences and histories of global majority people and communities. Striving to ensure history is included in the nation’s archives, we work to support communities to explore and record their experiences and histories in their own voices, their own languages and in ways that work best for them.
My Work as a Community Archivist
I have been working for the AIUET since 2018 starting as a Trainee Archivist, I have been lucky enough to secure subsequent project roles and progress to a qualified Archivist and now a project Manager. My role as a Community Archivist is quite broad, no two days are the same, I could be delivering oral history training, meeting with a new group exploring a project idea for funding, collecting donations from a community group, attending a community event at a local Gurdwara, or processing audio interviews for the archive. I am passionate about learning and documenting the real history of people from Global Majority backgrounds to ensure recorded history is more inclusive and representative. I am also passionate about access and sharing archives and history with all.
Connecting with Rekindling Nello James
I first heard about the ReKindling Nello James project through Charlotte Forshaw, a community researcher and writer who reached out to AIUET for project support as she was writing the funding bid, and then later connected with Bianca and Cara. We offered to be the project’s heritage partner with research and access to archive material and oral history skills training. After some research into our collections and others I discovered there was little documentation about the history of the Nello James Centre. I did find some references to the Nello James Centre in some oral history interviews where women of Irish heritage received training on a printing press from local Black women possibly women of the Black Women’s Co-operative (later became Abasindi); printing community materials such as newsletters.
This made me think about the gap in Manchester’s collective history, the gap of the Nello James Centre, a once thriving community hub in Whalley Range and has sadly recently been acquired by property developers. The Centre was named after Cyril Lionel James, a Trinidad-born historian, political activist, and a leading figure in the pan-African movement. It was opened in his memory in the early 1970s and gifted to the community through a donation from Vanessa Redgrave. The Nello James Centre became a social hub for education, activism, and legal advice. Its recent sale to developers, despite many recalling being “gifted to the community in perpetuity” has raised concerns and anger within the community, particularly around the legality of the sale.
Community Memory
On Saturday 29th November, I attended the ReKindling Nelloe James event with boxes of with historical archives and stories of the local area ready to Rekindle a forgotten history. On display was a selection of photographs of the local area around the 80s and a collection of community ephemera such as campaign material, promotional materials and newsletters all demonstrating community spirit, joy, activism and celebration of the time.
I chatted to people on the day, about their memories of the Nello James Centre, and more general community spaces and the idea of belonging, how places shape our lives and how our environments influence our identity, connect to our heritage and how the loss of spaces can impact our communities.
During the event all attendees gathered into the open classroom area of the Rekindle School (a building which once housed the Black Women’s Co-Operative/Abasindi). Just being in the space with its tall ceilings, protected original features, vibrant artwork and exposed brick work could transport anyone back to a time that no longer exists, there was something very special holding this event here.
Memories and stories shared by people who either worked, lived near, volunteered or taught at the Nello James Centre. I learnt about a lady who cooked THE best Caribbean food in the Centre’s kitchen and gave cooking classes, the volunteer who would teach car mechanics to local people in a class room, he would bring in random car parts and teach people to fix their cars. I learnt about the lady who was forced to attend supplementary school a child and moaned about it, but then later realised how valuable this was for her growth and sense of identity. I also learnt about the social side, how people mobilised and activated in the fight for social justice and against police violence against Black communities. And then there was the BBQ’s! A gentleman recalled a time one summer he helped dig a trench in the garden to roast a whole goat which was shared with everyone. Rich memories which form the tapestry of Manchester social history told by the people themselves.
Preserving Stories for the Future
The event also featured a quiet interview room where people told their stories which were recorded. The interviews will be donated to the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre and become part of a permanent archive which will be preserved for the future and available for access.
It has been such an honour supporting this project, and thanks to the hard work and passion of the project leads and staff at ReKindle School, the valuable history of the Nello James Centre as told by the people will not be forgotten.
Read more about AIUT here
